This workshop is challenging the way you view tea and chocolate

If you’ve ever thought to reach for a cup of tea to pair with the chocolate bar you’re about to eat, kudos. We reckon tea isn’t the first beverage that comes to mind for most people in that scenario. But Teakha and the Chocolate Club are hoping to change the way we look at both products with their tea and chocolate pairing workshop on May 11.

Held at Plantation by Teakha in Shek Tong Tsui, the workshop will highlight the complexities of small plantation tea and high-quality chocolate, inviting guests to open up their senses to this unique — and, frankly, successful — combination. Warren Hsu, founder of award-winning Taiwanese craft chocolate brand Fu Wan, will be on hand to talk about the tree-to-bar stories behind the chocolate he’s presenting, too.

Tea has a long and heralded history in Hong Kong (and no, we’re not talking about lai cha). Chocolate, on the other hand, not so much. But chocolate expert Katie Chan, founder of the Chocolate Club, is trying open our eyes to the world of real chocolate. That means working with producers that use only high-quality cacao beans to naturally impart a range of flavours in their bars, from berries and raisin to hazelnut, and don’t cram their products with artificial ingredients. She's also shining light on the concept of single-estate and single-origin chocolates, terms typically bandied about in coffee circles.

At the same time, she’s telling bean-to-bar stories through truly interesting chocolate pairing events. Like, for instance, the chocolate and sake pairing she recently co-hosted at Sake Central. Pretty neat stuff. And let’s be real: if you appreciate things like fine wine, farm-to-table food or craft beer, you should be able to appreciate real chocolate, too.